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The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship has been the late-arriving cavalry for Scottish European Tour professionals so often in the past, but only Stephen Gallacher left St Andrews with safety secured on Sunday night.

Buoyed by the news that the women injured by his errant shot on Thursday had been discharged from hospital and was actually back watching golf yesterday, Tyrrell Hatton is in poised for a special bit of history at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The fat $5 million prizefund at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship has often been the saviour for many a Scots player with his European Tour rights in peril, although that’s an unfamiliar situation for Richie Ramsay.

It’s not a sudden epidemic –it happens at every big golf tournament – but another spectator felled by a loose shot from a prominent player in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship yesterday makes it feel like it is.

Exactly a year to the day he claimed his course record in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Tommy Fleetwood returns to Carnoustie having ended his Ryder Cup hangover in abrupt fashion at Kingsbarns yesterday.

Playing St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns in a tournament not quite as intense as the usual tour stops is a pretty nice way to get back to the day job, but there’s no danger anyway of Tommy Fleetwood or Tyrrell Hatton coming down quite yet.

Brooks Koepka mused at what it would be like if “one of my best friends” Dustin Johnson and he did actually come to blows - “15, rounds, rough and rowdy” - but denied that any such thing had happened either prior or in the aftermath of the Ryder Cup.

The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship has been the late-arriving cavalry for Scottish European Tour professionals so often in the past, but only Stephen Gallacher left St Andrews with safety secured on Sunday night.

Buoyed by the news that the women injured by his errant shot on Thursday had been discharged from hospital and was actually back watching golf yesterday, Tyrrell Hatton is in poised for a special bit of history at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The fat $5 million prizefund at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship has often been the saviour for many a Scots player with his European Tour rights in peril, although that’s an unfamiliar situation for Richie Ramsay.

It’s not a sudden epidemic –it happens at every big golf tournament – but another spectator felled by a loose shot from a prominent player in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship yesterday makes it feel like it is.

Exactly a year to the day he claimed his course record in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Tommy Fleetwood returns to Carnoustie having ended his Ryder Cup hangover in abrupt fashion at Kingsbarns yesterday.

Playing St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns in a tournament not quite as intense as the usual tour stops is a pretty nice way to get back to the day job, but there’s no danger anyway of Tommy Fleetwood or Tyrrell Hatton coming down quite yet.

Brooks Koepka mused at what it would be like if “one of my best friends” Dustin Johnson and he did actually come to blows - “15, rounds, rough and rowdy” - but denied that any such thing had happened either prior or in the aftermath of the Ryder Cup.

Chatting to Andrew on a blustery September morning, it is obvious that this golf enthusiast is exactly where he wants to be. And who could blame him? With world-famous golf courses, a PGA National Golf Academy and some of the most sought-after practice facilities in the world right on his doorstop, there can be few better spots for golf lovers to spend some time.

Riding the passion of the perennial Ryder Cup hero Ian Poulter beating the World No 1 and the new star Jon Rahm taking down the greatest of them all, Thomas Bjorn’s Europe withstood a mid-afternoon wobble to reclaim the Ryder Cup amid ecstatic scenes at Le Golf National.

Inspired by the unbeaten “Moli-Wood” pairing of Open champion Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood, Europe will take a commanding four-point lead into the final day singles at the 42nd Ryder Cup after a another dominating day at Le Golf National near Paris.

Ian Poulter was in the stands at the first tee as his team-mates started the first session with him on the bench, but after enjoying the fan atmosphere he was in the thick of it in the afternoon comeback.

Tony Finau is a little different than the rest of the American team, and not just because of he’s of Polynesian descent, and only just escaped playing the islanders’ preferred sport of rugby like his Dad and brother.

Thomas Bjorn’s emotional appeal to European unity – not a comment on Brexit, he insisted – sounded the clarion call in Paris as the talking mercifully ended and the pairings lined up for the 44th Ryder Cup to finally start.

The first session at a Ryder Cup is rarely pivotal – only last time, when the US swept a foursomes session 4-0, and the rout of 2004, when the US managed just half a point in fourballs, could they be regarded as being the writing on the wall.

Rory McIlroy will leave nothing on the course but won’t let it all hang out so early this time at the Ryder Cup, admitting yesterday that he let the excitement and hostile atmosphere of Hazeltine get to him.

Tyrrell Hatton doesn’t yet know how nervous he’ll be in front the mammoth first tee stands at Le Golf National, but he has no doubts where he was most nervous in his golfing career to this date – on the rather different arena of the 17th tee at Ladybank Golf Club in Fife.

Tiger Woods arrived in the US team room at their transit hotel to a hero’s welcome from his Ryder Cup colleagues after his long-awaited comeback victory, but captain Jim Furyk said he’d “flipped the page” already.

Paul Lawrie says that Sergio Garcia’s influence within the European Ryder Cup team room is "phenomenal" and the Spaniard’s presence could give Thomas Bjorn’s team the necessary edge at Le Golf National in Paris this week.

Scotland’s Liam Johnston claimed his second Challenge Tour victory in his debut season to all but clinch his European Tour card for 2019 while Callum Hill continued his rapid rise through the ranks at in Kazakhstan Open yesterday.

The R&A’s desire to ditch its crusty, traditional image and promote a new persona for the 21st century was underlined with the announcement yesterday of a simplified Rules of the Golf and a complete rebranding of the organisation.

The rebel “Requisitionists” who voted down Scottish Golf’s proposed financial restructuring in March will have their own proposals tested at a special general meeting of the governing body early next month.

The goodwill and desire from all quarters to improve the fortunes of all aspects of golf in Scotland is so strong that any difficulties the sport faces are surmountable, believes Scottish Golf chief executive Andrew McKinlay.

Victor Veyret will be walking tall down the fairways of Le Golf National in the Ryder Cup in less than a month’s time, but his dream is to have it with club in hand in the future and he’s on the right track.

Euan Walker did much to justify his selection for the Scotland team for next week’s Eisenhower Trophy in Ireland but Euan McIntosh did as much to justify the feeling he should be going too on the first day at the Carrick Neill Scottish Open Championship.